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SD Card and Gamecube games

SD CARD QUESTIONS
----------------------
I just recently softmodded my wii (actually not sure if it's modded...maybe the SD card is doing everything?)
Anyways I use a program called ModMii to create a step-by-step guide for me on my computer I followed.

I believe it's all working, I've got the SD card launching correctly, allowing me to go to the homebrew channel.
However..I'm a bit confused about a few things.

First of all, on my main Wii menu, I have two channels:
Homebrew Channel
USB Loader Channel

1)
Are these installed to my Wii? Or is it installed to my SD card?
2)
If I were to remove my SD card and power on my Wii, will I still be able to use the USB Loader / Homebrew Channel?
Like would I have access to it from my Wii Menu? Or do I now need the SD Card in 100% of the time I want to do things like..
play Backup Wii games via the USB Loader? Is there a way I can remove the SD Card and use the USB Loader?

USB LOADER QUESTIONS
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I'm able to launch Wii games successfully via the CFG USB Loader.
I used a program called WiiBackupManager to format my USB to wbfs format and transfer
my New Super Mario Bros. Wii iso to the USB successfully.
I was then able to launch it via the CFG USB Loader.

What I would like to know is two things:
1)
I noticed the size of the game on my USB was 345MB, yet the actual iso before was about 4.37GB..
How is the game so small when it gets transferred to my USB? And yet it works??
I'm confused about that.
2)
I have a .gcm file (Metroid Prime) that I would like to transfer to my USB as well via WiiBackupManager.
How would I do this? Will USB Loader even detect it? Would I be able to run Gamecube games via CFG USB Loader?

Unfortunately I can't modify the contents of my SD card right now because my SD card reader is on the fritz,
so I can't go download another USB Loader if this one doesn't accept Gamecube games...

2) They will load, however, they will require a SD or USB device to function completely. If you load a USB Loader yet you have no USB drive connected you will be limited (depending on the loader) to only loading what's on your Wii's NAND. With HBC if no SD or USB device is detected you'll just see the bubbles in the background, all you'll be able to do is press Home and shutdown the system/exit to the menu.

USB LOADER QUESTIONS:

1) When they make any game (not just Wii games) if they don't take up the full space the disc allows they stick "filler" code in there. It's just blank code that fills the disc the rest of the way (at least this is what I've been told). I'm not sure why they do it but they do. Now there is a process called "trimming", when you add a 4.37gb ISO to a USB trim and choose to trim or "scrub" it your program will remove this useless data to save space for you, it will leave the game untouched in most cases (I have heard some people claiming cutscenes in some games get messed up doing this but I've never experience it myself)

2) a .gcm game is a type of GameCube ISO file. There are a couple different ways you can add it to your drive, how to make the USB loader see it depends on which USB Loader you use. 1: you can drag and drop the ISO into a certain folder (for USB Loader GX it's USB/Games/GameID/Game.iso). Another way is with a program called DiscEX. It will do all the work for you, including scrubbing the game, you'll simply have to copy the generated folder(s) into your games directory.

A note about .gcm files. You can rename to .iso and they will work that way...I'm not sure if you have to do that but just letting you know it's an option. You will also need a secondary program to enable your USB Loader to load the GC games. For USB use Devolution or Dios Mios, for SD use Dios Mios LITE.

Thanks for the help.
Just one question still about the actual softmod.

I'm confused about still needing an SD card/USB.
Is the SDCard/USB only needed for doing things such as wii backups?
Because yeah I don't mind using my USB, however the SD card is to my friends camera and he unfortunately wants it back.
Was the SDCard only necessary for the installation of the softmod?

It's definitely okay to remove the SD card from the Wii, and I'll still be able to play Wii backups via my USB Loader on the Wii menu?

PS:
I've got two things in my Wii right now.
- An SD Card that I used for the softmod installation
- A USB containing Wii game .isos attached to the USB slot closest to the edge of the wii (above the fan)

The SD card is used primarily for loading apps via HBC but you can load them off USB as well (I'll post a link telling how to do that in a few). Provided your Wii is old enough I think you can load backup discs with your USB loader but I've never used Config USB (I know GX does this...at least last time I tried it did). You may want to make sure that you have the FULL channel version of the USB Loader if you will be unable to load it from USB for whatever reason.

Lastly, for the USB loading just to be sure it's the correct port. Laying down it is the bottom port, standing up and looking from behind it is the right port.

Sorry it took so long to respond but this should answer your quesition:

Originally Posted by oddgriffin

I think you press the 1 button or maybe the 2 button while Homebrew channel is loaded. Then a new menu will appear to direct it to load from a hdd. You need to have an apps folder in the root of the fat32 partition just like how the sd card is set-up